recipe

I blame my husband for this post. And his mother. (Although I love them both dearly!) This is a recipe that my husband loved growing up and on occasion requests that we have it for dinner. In a weak moment this weekend, and a need to use up the leftover ham, I agreed. It’s a fairly simple recipe, and gets its origin from the military. The military used chipped beef, because it was readily available. Often it was called “Chipped Beef on Toast,” and through time got its colorful name “Sh!t on a Shingle.” (Or S.O.S., or “Save Our Stomachs”, etc.)

We stayed close to the original recipe, although we substituted ham for the chipped beef and added chopped up hard boiled eggs. (Again, not my idea, I was just doing as was requested!) We also used buttermilk biscuits instead of toast. Just to add some nice buttery flavor. Here is our variation of the recipe:

Instructions:
Cook the biscuits as directed on package. While the biscuits bake, melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, along with a few dashes of ground pepper. Don’t let the butter brown. As soon as it is melted, add the flour, and whisk it in. Let cook for a minute, then whisk in half of the milk. As soon as it has been absorbed, whisk in the remainder of the milk. Stir in the ham and eggs, then set the heat to low. Once the biscuits are finished, slice in half and place them on a plate. Spoon the ham/egg mixture over the top of the biscuits. Sprinkle with black pepper. Enjoy! Really, it isn’t that bad, but beware, it is very filling!

Our sweet dog, Jenny, loves a good treat. I thought it would be fun to make some homemade treats for her. I found a ton of recipes for dog biscuits, but this one caught my eye. Plus I had all the ingredients in the pantry, so it won.

They were so simple to make, and the cost was minimal. Dog treats aren’t cheap, so this might very well be something I do often. Here are the ingredients & instructions:

Instructions:
1 Preheat oven to 350º F.
2 In a large bowl, mix the pumpkin, eggs and peanut butter until smooth. Add the flour and salt. Mix well. (I am so thankful I have a Kitchen Aid for these types of recipes!)
3. Sprinkle flour on your counter. Place the dough on the counter and knead it into a ball. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin, to about 1/2 inch thick. Use cookie cutters to make the biscuits. (I found the bone shaped cutter at Walmart.) Re-roll and repeat, until you’ve used all of the dough. (I made indentations in the biscuits – see photos – with the back end of a small paint brush, you could also use a fork.)
4 Place the biscuits onto a baking sheet with parchment paper. The biscuits can be placed close together, as they won’t get any bigger. Bake for 20 minutes. Flip each biscuit over and place back in the oven. Bake for another 15-20 minutes or until completely dry. Let cool before giving your dog a treat. Woof!

Jenny knew I was up to something, so she was awfully good about sitting still, waiting for her treat…

Wait for it…

Yes! She got it. Well deserved. She “woofed” that treat right down, I’d say these were a huge success!

Like this:

Snickerdoodles are my all-time favorite cookie. I was brought up with a love for cooking and baking, and used to make these cookies when I was a young girl. I would use my mom’s Betty Crocker Cookie Book from the 1960s.

As a matter of fact, I still use it, as she has passed the cookbook on to me. This page has many years of cooking stains and even notes about how to cut the recipe in half. (I did those fractions, back in grade school!)

Like this:

One of my husbands favorite “Chinese” food dishes at the fast-food Chinese place at the mall is Bourbon Chicken. When I came across a recipe for it on Pinterest one day, I wanted to try it. I never thought to make it myself. And did you know, Bourbon chicken isn’t really of Chinese origin, it’s named for Bourbon Street in New Orleans. It’s most commonly found at Cajun-themed Chinese restaurants. Who knew?!

INSTRUCTIONS
Mix the marinade ingredients together in a large container or bowl. Add the chicken pieces and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for about 4 hours. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook until the meat is done. Drain excess oil and water. Add half the marinade to the chicken and continue cooking until the marinade thickens. (I added a little extra brown sugar to help thicken the sauce.) Serve over rice.

The restaurant at the mall uses dark meat chicken, and I imagine that would be excellent with this recipe as well. We prefer white meat in our house, so I used that. But honestly, you could use either. I added some green onions on top, they added a nice flavor.

* The inspiration for this recipe came from the Jo Cooks website. Please check out their site for more recipes!

Like this:

Our 2 favorite cookies in this house are peanut butter cookies and chocolate chip cookies. When I saw the recipe for these Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies on Pinterest, I was sold. I had to try them. They did not disappoint.

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 (F). Mix the butter, peanut butter and sugar in a bowl. (Using a Kitchen Aid mixer works very nicely.)
2. Once it is mixed into a creamy texture, add the egg, milk and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Add the flour, baking soda and salt and mix until well blended. Stir in the cup of chocolate chips.
4. Put tablespoon size drops of cookie dough on to a cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
5. Cool on wire rack. Eat and enjoy! Makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Like this:

I’m not sure why, but I’ve never made salad dressing from scratch. I guess I’ve never really thought to do it myself. It’s so easy just to pick up a bottle at the store. I saw this recipe on the Taste of Home website and thought I’d give it a whirl. It seemed easy enough and I actually had all the ingredients on hand.

Instructions:
Put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Put in a container for storage in the fridge, or use it all at once. If you aren’t going to be using it immediately, keep it chilled until use.

I ended up doubling the recipe, I probably should have tripled it. I really liked it. Also, if you have a Magic Bullet in the house, USE IT! I just put all the ingredients in one of the Magic Bullet cups, put the chopper blade section on tightly and whipped it up. It worked really well, especially with the honey, which can can difficult to mix.

I found this recipe in an article on the Taste of Home website, feel free to check them out for more salad dressing recipes. They had 15 other recipes listed in the article. They all look so good! I can’t wait to try more of them out. I’ll be sure to post them here when I do!

Like this:

I have a weakness for Chai. Especially the Iced Chai Tea Latte from Starbucks. It was an expensive weakness, until I discovered how to make them on my own. TAZO Chai Black Tea Latte from concentrate is the secret ingredient.

TAZO sells several varieties of the Chai Latte mix. I pick mine up at Target. They always seem to have a good deal at 2 boxes for $6. This is the exact same Chai mix that Starbucks uses. And they charge at least $4-5 per drink! Well, you can get 8 drinks out of one box of the TAZO Chai. That’s a savings of around $28 per carton if you do it yourself! That’s a decent chunk of change. And they’re simple to make too. If you use 2% or Skim milk, they’re really not that bad for you either!

Instructions:
Pour the TAZO Chai and the milk over ice in your favorite cup. Top with whipped cream (not necessary, but fun on occasion.) Stir with a straw and enjoy! If you prefer a larger up of Chai, just use a 1:1 ratio on the Chai mix and milk.

We had a big turkey dinner this past weekend, which left us with a lot of leftovers. More than I thought there would be! I had scheduled a Mexican food night for New Years Eve, so I stuck with that, but added a twist with some leftover turkey. We had delicious Turkey Enchiladas.

I pretty much just threw in whatever I had on hand. 1 can of enchilada sauce, a can of black beans, chopped up onion and the turkey. I used both white and dark meat, which made for interesting textures.

I stuffed the flour tortillas with the meat mixture, rolled them up and covered them with shredded Mexican cheese.

I baked the Enchiladas for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. They were amazing! I love to add hot sauce to everything, which I did, for a nice spicy twist. This was a super easy meal to make. I used up some of the leftovers and everyone enjoyed a fantastic home-cooked meal.

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place the turkey meat, 3/4 can of Enchilada sauce, onion and black beans in a skillet, heat until boiling. Then let simmer on low for about 5-10 minutes. Stirring often. Grease a casserole dish. Place a cup of the meat mixture in a flour tortilla, add a handful of cheese. Roll up the tortilla and place in casserole dish. Repeat until dish is full and mixture is gone. A throw the extra meat mixture on top of the tortillas if there’s any left. Cover the tortillas with the rest of the Enchilada sauce. Cover with cheese. Bake for 30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes, serve with some nice tortilla chips or refried beans. Enjoy!

Like this:

I made my first “homemade” cranberry sauce tonight. It turned out really well! I’m not a fan of the jelly cranberry sauce from a can, but I really like other things with cranberry, so I thought I would try to make my own. I added a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon and that made all the difference in the world.

Instructions:
1. Rinse cranberries. Throw away any damaged or bruised cranberries. Pour the water, orange juice and sugar in a medium saucepan on high heat and bring to a boil. Stir well to dissolve sugar.
2. Add the cranberries to the pan and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until most of the cranberries have burst. I mushed them up a little bit once they were soft.
3 You can leave the cranberry sauce as it is, or add some other fun ingredients. You could add raisins or even blueberries for nice sweet flavor. I love cinnamon and nutmeg, so I added a bit of each of those to mine.
4. Remove the pan from heat. Let cool for a few minutes, then transfer to a bowl to put in the refrigerator. The cranberry sauce will continue to thicken as it cools. It will be ready to serve after 30 minutes or so.

Like this:

Before I post the recipe for the best mushroom soup in the world, let me first begin by saying I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas. Ours was lovely, full of family, food and gifts. I hope yours was too.

Now on to the soup! I created this recipe using my basic potato soup recipe to start. I figured the creaminess from the potato soup would be a perfect mix with the mushrooms. I would even say that another version of this soup could include the potatoes and maybe even some bacon or steak bits. That could be another post for another day!

Instructions:
Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Add minced onion, garlic powder and mushrooms. Cook until mushrooms are soft. Add flour. Mix well. Add light cream and milk, stir. Cook the beef bouillon cube with 1/4 cup water in the microwave for about 30-45 seconds, stir the cube until it dissolves. Add bouillon mixture to soup. Stir constantly while bringing to a boil. Bring heat down to low and simmer for 20-30 minutes. Pour soup into bowl and sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top. Serve with crackers or bread and enjoy!